Surrounding Color can Affect the Measured Color of a Sample

The author has presented a number of papers1-6 on the effects of lateral diffusion error (LDE) on measured reflectance values. LDE can be caused by instrument sample illuminating light laterally diffusing out of the area viewed by instrument measuring system. In a 1995 paper4 it was shown that the color of the backing used while the sample is being measured can affect the LDE value (e. g. the LDE is higher when the sample is backed with white than it is when a black backing is used). A logical extension of this is that the color of the top surface of the area immediately adjacent to the sample area can also affect the LDE. This paper reports experimental results of a measurement program which was designed to demonstrate that the measured color of a sample can be affected by the presence of different colored areas immediately adjacent to the measured area. A typical situation in which this might occur is the measurement of small elements of a print control strip.